Creating a healthy balance one sip at a time.

Month: March 2015

Eating food is one of my favorite things to do. It might be my MOST favorite thing to do. I wake up and go to bed thinking about food. I love to cook it, create new recipes, and find new options that both my husband and I will love. However, without fail, we always end up falling back into the same mixture of meals each week. We sometimes will add in something new, but typically, we stick with what we know works for us. Here’s a compilation of the foods that we typically eat each week.

Disclaimer: I love to cook and I think most of my meals turn out pretty well. With that said, I do not measure anything and I kind of just throw things together and keep throwing things in til it’s right. My directions and ingredients are not very detailed. This is why I’m horrible at baking.

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures. I have found I take HORRIBLE food pictures. I need some help in that department.

Breakfast:

Avocado toast with sriracha. This is my absolute favorite thing to eat. I’ll eat it at any time of the day, but I get especially excited when I’m going to have it for breakfast. I love anything with sriracha, and this is no exception. It’s the perfect balance of fat and carbs to make a complete breakfast. We’ll also add sea salt, ground pepper, garlic salt, or red pepper flakes to take up the flavor a little more. Oh and I always butter my toast because I also love butter.

I’m combining lunch and dinner because if I don’t go out for lunch, I usually am eating leftovers from the night before. If I do go out, lunches consist of: veggie bowls for Chipotle or Bibibop, soup/sandwich/salad combo from Panera, or a giant salad from the local grocery store.

When we are cooking, our meals consist of:

Peanut Butter Chickpea Kale
Ingredients: kale, chickpeas, 1 big scoop pb, whatever veggies you want, veggie broth, spices, sriracha (optional)
Directions: In a big pan pour the veggie broth and scoop of pb and let it melt down. Add in the chickpeas. I like to cook my kale in a microwavable veggie cooker to get it wilted. You could throw in the kale with the chickpeas, veggie broth, and pb mixture though. While that cooks, chop up your veggies while occasionally stirring the pb/chickpeas. Add in veggies and let cook for 5-7 minutes. Add optional spices and sriracha.

Tempeh Tacos
Ingredients: tempeh, taco shells, veggies, kale, spices, peanut butter sauce (optional)
Directions: Chop up the tempeh into little 1/2″ pieces. Put oil in pan and turn on medium heat. Once hot, add the tempeh and let cook for 5 minutes on each side. Tempeh tends to soak up the oil quickly so you’ll have to add more or continuously stir it around. Add in your veggies and spices, heat up shells. Boom. Dinner served.

Homemade Pizza
This is a fav. And it’s super quick and easy to make.
Ingredients: wheat flour, oil, water, toppings, marinara, cheese, baking powder
Directions: Turn oven on to 450. While that heats up, add 2 cups of flour to a large bowl. Add in 1 teaspoon baking power and a little salt to the mixture. Add 1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup oil to mixture. Start to roll the dough into a ball with your hands. You might need to add more water. Once the dough is ready, spread onto greased baking pan. Cook for 8 minutes. While cooking, chop up toppings. When dough is ready, top it with sauces, toppings, and cheese. Cook til cheese is melted (I like to broil mine for 2 minutes to get it brown).

As you can tell, most of my recipes involve my favorite veggies (onions, red peps, jalepenos, and kale) and my favorite spices (cumin, cayenne, sriracha). What I love about cooking is that everything can be tailored to your own specific taste. Luckily, my husband and I both love spicy foods, so we tend to make our food that way. Whenever we have guests over, we always take the spice down and notch and keep the sriracha shelved until someone requests it (which usually always happens anyway!)

Since I’ve been trying to cut out all products that test on animals, LUSH has been my go to company for skin care. This lotion is super pricey ($26), but it is AH-Mazing and you really don’t need a ton since it spreads so well. And, LUSH donates 100% the proceeds to a different charity. Extra bonus!!

Andy Grammer

I’ve really liked Andy Grammer’s music for awhile now, but his new song “Honey, I’m Good” is my new fav. All of his music is super catchy and I love his lyrics. I hope to catch him next time he’s in Columbus!

In my challenge to rid my life of products tested on animals, that means I’m also getting rid of a lot of toxic and expensive cleaning products. Since our entire first floor has laminate wood, I knew I needed something to mop up those paw prints. After some searching, I found this super easy solution that I poured into a used Swiffer WetJet bottle. The vinegar smell is a little overwhelming, but I try to balance it by adding some lavender or tea tree oil to the mix. You could probably add lemon too.

The fact that summer is so close.

One of the last weddings of the summer last year. We only have one wedding lined up so far this year!

The grass is starting to turn greener and the birds are chirping again. Sure, it’s still 20 degrees in the mornings, but I feel as though we are making progress and I’ll be able to open my windows soon! We have so many plans for our yard this summer and I’m anxious to start working on our projects! (sidenote: I started this draft this afternoon and now at 7 p.m., there is about 2 inches of snow on the ground. ugh.)

Our new house and neighborhood.

We’ve been in our new house for just over a month now. We had our housewarming party over the weekend and we were flooded with gifts and love from our closest friends and family. The above photo is our newest addition to the house–we repainted our buffet table and had a wine rack custom built for us. We live in Powell, but we are also within 10 minutes of Dublin and Worthington. I have always adored Powell and all the restaurants and shops that are there, so it’s awesome being so close to downtown Powell as well as Dublin and Worthington.

What are you loving this week?

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I’m a group fitness junkie. I would much rather take a group class than spend 20 minutes in the gym by myself. I take a big variety of classes–yoga, strength, hip hop, spinning. I also teach spinning 1-2 times a week, so as an instructor, I know it’s impossible to please everyone. That said, there are a few things that both the instructor and the attendees do that drive me up the wall.

1. Starting a class late/students coming late to class. This is obvious, but man it is so annoying–and it happens all the time. I know I’m guilty of this in spinning sometimes…but it’s usually not my fault. Someone will walk in late and be a first-timer, so I have to spend the next 5 minutes getting their bikes set up and explaining the different hand positions. I’ve also been to yoga classes where 5-10 minutes in someone will walk in the room and make everyone shift their mats over in the already crowded class and just interrupt the entire flow that we just started.

2. Music being too loud/too quiet. There is nothing worse than being in an extremely crowded room, unable to see the instructor, and not be able to hear what they are saying either. On the flip side, I can’t get into the groove with super quiet music. I need some noise! This balance is sometimes hard to find, but it is so important.

3. Instructors that don’t do the work too. I get it…lots of classes require the instructor to walk around to encourage and correct form, but I also think it’s important for the instructor to participate in what she is teaching. How can someone tell you that you can do 15 more burpees when they haven’t done one? It’s good to have a model up front doing the moves correctly and with you so they can also feel your pain.

4. Students that half-ass the moves. Trust me, I’ve been there. There have been many times in yoga where I just say, “not today,” and sit in down dog for a few minutes. It’s okay and I always encourage people to listen to their bodies. But, when other students who are just plain lazy decide not to participate and then interfere with my space/energy, I want to yell at them. Why are you here if you aren’t going to move your body? Don’t half ass a class. You won’t get your money’s worth.

5. Instructors that don’t cool you down or stretch you out when class is over. I know instructors want to squeeze as much in to the class as possible, and I also know all the arguments about stretching…but I think this is so important. If you are doing a high-intensity workout and end class with your heart rate at 90%, chances are you’re going to be leaving that class in the next 3-5 minutes and that can be dangerous. You really need to let your body come back down to a normal level before you go on about your day. I personally also think stretching after a workout is just as important, and if the class time is already over, we all know you’re not going to stay any longer to stretch by yourself.

I do love my group classes..the ones I teach and the ones I attend. But, if you’re guilty of any of the above items, cut it out!

What bothers you in group fitness classes?

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Week two is in the books and I’ve got to say, this one was tough. Week one I had lots of excitement and purpose and then week two all of that started to fade. I started to look at this challenge as a negative instead of a positive and I started to focus more on what I couldn’t eat instead of what I could.

We used our drink night on Saturday night–and we definitely went over the recommended limit. I learned on Sunday that the challenge recommends only 4 drinks on drink night for a reason. It is very painful the next day. My brother, sister in law, and nephew were in town and we decided to take them out for dinner.

Blurry, dark, and I’m sure successful yoga being done here.

A few beers there, then a few glasses of wine at home, and then a few hot toddy’s later, I was toast. Not my smartest decision, but we did have a great time! I paid for it on Sunday and then swore off drinking altogether (or until next Saturday). The drinks did lead my brother and I to practicing yoga in the living room around midnight–so not all was lost.

Ryan and I would drink wine probably 4 nights a week. Just a glass or two, but we were pretty consistent about it. It was a habit we knew we needed to break not only because it started to get expensive, but also because it guaranteed us evenings on the couch watching TV instead of doing something more productive. Also, it wasn’t good on the waistline even though we all know wine is just grapes and nothing more.

Back to the food. Since Sunday was mostly spent on the couch because of above hangover, pizza obviously came into the picture. We used this as our treat meal for the week. The pizza was delicious and absolutely what I needed to start feeling normal again. No regrets on that meal.

Monday morning rolled around and I stepped on the scale only to be disappointed. The first week I had lost almost 5 pounds, and this week, I gained back 2 of them. As I mentioned, the first week I was excited and planned out each and every meal–I even wrote down everything I was eating. Week two, that all kind of died down and I got lazy. I still ate pretty good, but I snacked more and didn’t watch my portions as well. I also only got in 2 workouts.

So here we are in the last and final week. I know I’ve learned a lot through this challenge. I know how to better control my grain intake and my sugar cravings, and learned that not every meal needs to include a processed carb. I’m re-energized this week and hope to finish with a bang. Cheers!

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Week 1 of the Check Yourself 21 Day Challenge is in the books! This first week we eliminated all processed foods, sugar, alcohol, and only had 1 grain a day. I’m down 3 pounds from last Monday and I’m feel really good. As mentioned before, I’m not going this challenge to lose a mass amount of weight–I’m doing it to cut my cravings and clean up my diet again. However, weight loss is going to go hand in hand with healthier eating and I’m okay with that.

The first 3 days were definitely the toughest for a number of reasons. I was really low on energy and my cravings were out of control–but I know that was because my body was clearing out all the bad stuff (there is a more scientific way of explaining but I’m not going to go into that). Typically, I’ll have 1-2 pieces of toast in the morning, rice with lunch, and either rice or more bread with dinner. I also always had a piece of chocolate after lunch and after dinner. I had to drastically change those habits and it took a few days to adjust, but by day 4 my cravings were gone.

Cutting the bread/grains was the hardest part. Since I’m a vegetarian, most of my meals include rice since it’s so easy to eat a lot of veggies that way. We had a lot of fun coming up with new concoctions that didn’t include grains. One of my favorite dinners included eggplant pizza. (please excuse the photo quality) This dinner was SUPER easy to make. Here’s the link to the recipe I used.

PS- Do you know how hard it is to remember to photograph your food? This was honestly the only food picture I got all week. I don’t know how bloggers do it before all their meals…I can’t wait to dig in once the plate is in front of me!

We had salads with almost every meal. Salad is always a safe choice and really pairs well with just about everything. Other dinners included: sweet potato chipotle bowls (no rice), veggie tacos, veggie burgers (no bun), and chickpea peanut butter kale (recipe soon!). Lunches revolved around a veggie chili that we made early in the week and soups and salads

Breakfasts have consisted of eggs, omelets, eggs with kale, and smoothies. I could have toast or oatmeal for breakfast but then that counts as my grain for the day and I don’t want to waste it so early! I’m getting tired of eggs so I’m sure I’ll switch it up this week.

Week two consists of a balance of one. We get one cheat meal and one night where we can drink alcohol. Ryan and I decided to use our cheat day on Sunday (day earlier than we were supposed to) because it was our FIRST anniversary! It was lovely to have a few beers and split a pizza with him. We knew we didn’t want to go out to fancy dinner so pizza and beer was perfect for us!

Other than using our cheat day a little early, we have really stuck with this challenge. I’m hoping to get in three workouts this week as well (last week I got in 4).

It’s getting easier to make the better choices and I notice I’m getting full faster than before and I’m not having the cravings I was before. I’ll be sure to check back in this time next week with another update!